1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a data bus coupler having a primary bus connection for a primary bus and a plurality of secondary bus connections each for connection of a terminal, and that includes a slave unit connected to the primary bus connection and a master unit connectable to the secondary bus connections and which is operable for sending telegrams to the secondary bus connections.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the context of data bus couplers such as that of the present invention, the primary bus and the links of the second bus connections to the terminals can be regarded as fieldbuses. When employing such fieldbuses, for example instance in automation technology such as a Profibus PA or a Foundation fieldbus H1 (an FF H1), if two or more terminals with an identical bus address are disposed on the data bus coupler, a system failure can occur, the cause of which can be difficult to determine. An exchange or the adding of terminals is also complicated, since allocation of subscriber addresses requires additional operating steps and the use of a programming device.
The publication EP 2 407 840 A1 discloses a method for operating an automation device which includes at least one master unit and at least one slave unit/DP-FF link connected by a first bus. Telegrams are transferred during control of a technical process by way of the first bus; these telegrams include a process image data area for configured field devices that are connected to the slave unit by a second bus/FF bus and have a configured, reserved process image data area.
The disadvantage with known methods is that a manual bus address setting of the field devices must take place outside of the system before they are then integrated into the system. The field devices must be connected and manually sequentially commissioned. In the commissioning, a bus address allocation, as with a portable programming device, is carried out, with each field device must be parameterized differently from all other field devices, one after the other.